


Alone

by veterization



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-01
Updated: 2012-08-01
Packaged: 2017-11-11 05:11:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/474873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veterization/pseuds/veterization
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A blurb in which little!Jensen is alone on the playground, so Jared decides to befriend him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone

There's a boy, barely tall enough to crawl up onto the rusty swing with big, watery eyes and dark blond hair falling into his face so primly it looks as if his mother gives him haircuts with a salad bowl on his head, staring at the swingset and looking very, very alone.  
  
Jared is never alone. He can't fathom why anyone would ever want to be. Even when he's on the bathroom, legs swinging off the toilet, he leaves the door open. He likes the sound of people chattering, his parents laughing, children playing together. He always chases after it. Every time he steps out of his house, he makes a new friend whether or not others are intent on the idea.  
  
He's in the sandbox, digging his bare toes into the grains beneath him and scrunching up his face as if he's being fed lemons every time Chad throws a handful of sand into the air and somehow always manages to aim for Jared's general direction. He scratches his eyes with a sandy fist and wipes his fingers off on his pants as he stares across the playground at the boy that can't be much older than him.  
  
But at the moment, Jared wouldn't care if he was in his forties with enough weight to crush Jared under one foot and a shady mustache with an equally shady disposition; he's still alone. Jared has his mother sitting on the nearest park bench with Megan in her lap throwing bits of her sandwiches at pigeons, his brother going through his too-cool-for-the-playground phase and sitting on the edge of the sandbox while he watches Jared swim in sand, and Chad is at his side with a plastic pail typically used for sand perched on his head eating dirt out of his palm. He's always surrounded.  
  
He gets up without a moment's trepidation, shaking sand off of his clothes and out of his shoes as it prickles in his socks, and steps over by the swingset.  
  
"Hi." Jared says, with a grin that his mother always tells him is borderline creepy but is really just adorable because Jared's still missing so many teeth and just happens to be cute like that.  
  
The boy's head snaps up to look at him. His entire face is the epitome of despondence, and Jared wonders if he can make that frown take a u-turn. Jared bets he has a nice smile. All kids do.  
  
"Why are you alone?" Jared ventures when the boy remains wordless.  
  
"I… can't find my dad."  
  
Jared remembers what that feels like. He's had scary moments at Target where he wanders off into the board game section and gets so distracted every woman suddenly looks like his mom. He doesn't falter in his smile and sticks his own pudgy hand out.  
  
"I'm Jared!" He announces, and uselessly flops his hand until Jensen unsurely takes it. "It's really sad to be alone. And especially to swing alone. You could come meet my friend Chad. He's a little scary and throws sand a lot and it stings if it goes in your eyes because even the one shampoo with the cute little dolphin on the cover can't get it out for _days_ —"  
  
He stops when he realizes that not only is he digressing, but Jensen is laughing. Laughing at _him_. Except he doesn't have time to be indignant at the fact that he's just made himself a source of humiliation because Jensen's laugh is really contagious, and soon he's chuckling along with him. Soon it's a stupid, pointless laughter fest, childlike and silly, and Jared takes Jensen's hand in his own, the sand rolling in between their palms.  
  
"What's your name?"  
  
"Jensen." The boy tells him, and this time, he doesn't look nearly as sad. When he smiles, he uses all of his teeth and really stretches his cheeks. Jared remembers asking what the anti-aging wrinkle cream on his mother's bathroom counter meant, and now as he watches the little creases appear in Jensen's skin as he grins, he knows where Jensen will have his wrinkles.  
  
"You know what this means?!" Jared yells, and Jensen jumps a little, "Our names both start with J. See? _Jay_ -red and _Jeh_ -nsen. The alphabet wants us to be friends."  
  
Jensen seems to find that either silly or perfectly reasonable, because another little smile makes it onto his face and he lets Jared pull him into the sandbox. He doesn't let go of his hand quite hand, even though Jared sweats a lot and is starting to feel the uncomfortable sheen of perspiration form where their skin meets and the sand is still pressed between their fingers, but he holds onto it like he imagines Jensen's father doing if he was walking around the playground with him. He's hoping it'll make him feel better, because when people feel good, they smile, and Jensen has a pretty great smile. His teacher would give that smile an A+ if that smile was a quiz. He's pretty sure.  
  
When Jensen's dad shows up half an hour later in a frenzy about his son, claiming that not only does he have the tendency to wander but he also has quite an anti-social quality, he's stopped dead in his tracks when he sees Jensen makes sandcastles with his new friend Jared, the smile on his face so permanent his cheeks are starting to hurt.  
  
Needless to say, from that point, with Jared Padalecki in his life, there was never again a moment when Jensen felt alone.

 


End file.
